--Hello everybody! Welcome to live at 5. It is Friday,
happy Friday, March 8th. --Happy friday.
--It is International Women's Day. Thank you
thank you. --Yes!
--I'm Beth Stevens --And I'm Ryan Lee Gilbert.
--And we are here in the
studio with Miss Caitlin Moynihan. --Hello!
--I would like to also thank you for wearing this
shirt, Ryan. -- Of course!
--And he did it --I'm feminist AF
--Yes, and AF in this case is in honor of
our guest is feminist always frozen.
--Yes. That's exactly. Always Frozen.
--We're talking about Noah J Ricketts
--Noah J Ricketts! --Here from Frozen on the
Broadway, but first our top 5.
--Some Olivier Awards have already been given
out.
--Yes, so earlier -- Special ones!
--Special ones! Earlier this week, we found out who's
nominated for Olivier Awards, including Kelli O'Hara and many other Broadway
favorites. --Adrienne Warren
--Adrienne Warren, Ken Watanabe . So
many great people, but some people have already received special Olivier words
for special recognition. These these were presented on March 8th, today, Vivien
Wallace, who is the Old Vic's former executive director of development, she
received an honor. Bendy Ashfield, who's the Royal Opera House apprenticeship
manager,
--Very British name right there --A very British name
--Bendy Ashfield -- Linford Hudson
another very British name is the long-serving London Palladium follow
follow spot operator. And the late Bob Thomas, who was a renowned theatre
accountant who died in 2018, he also received a special honor. They were
presented during the Olivier Awards nominees celebration which is held at the
Mayfair Hotel in London.
--Fancy.
--Have you been, Beth? --Well, I just know it's a fancy neighborhood
--Super fancy, yes. The the
actual Olivier Awards ceremony will take place on April 7th, hosted by Jason
Manford. Very exciting. Congratulations to the honorees.
--Some A-list stars are set
to join Nassim off Broadway. --We love talking about Nasim
off Broadway --It just keeps rolling along.
--We have some new guests. And you know I think
they just they just get the script and
they go on. --They do.
--It's a cold situation. --Scary for them, I would assume. B ut
--Scary for them, but it's --Prove your chops!
--entertaining for the audience.
Zachary Quinto Jill Pace and Christopher Fitzgerald are among the list— go to
Broadway.com to read the whole list of guests that will be in Nassim's show.
--And these are a few of our favorite things to honor Julie Andrews about.
--Yes, have you heard of Julie Andrews? --I have. Thank you.
--Oh good! Yes, Tony nominated actress of course for My Fair Lady, Camelot and Victor/Victoria,
she's also an Oscar winner. You may know her— of course Sound of Music, Mary Poppins
--You know who she is, come on. --But Princess Diaries
--Honestly yes. --Different
generation.
--she has been named the recipient of the 2019 Golden Lion Award
for career achievement. This will be presented at the Venice Film Festival,
which is happening August 28th through September 7 in Venice. --Obviously
--Of course. --Not Venice
California.
--Not Venice California, the real --The real Venice
--So, yeah I'm always in favor of giving Julie
Andrews more awards. So, congrats to the Venice film festival for making the right decision
--And save the date for this upcoming biopic.
--Oh, let's talk about this -- I'm very excited about this
shall we?
--It's a big deal.
-- Jennifer Hudson, who you may have heard of,
is going to be in the Aretha Franklin biopic. And it has a release date, so
mark your calendar --Marked
--Ready? August 14th 2020.
You got a lot of time.
--You got a lot of time. --So many things happening in 2020!
--Yes, well you better stick around.
--Every, yeah! --Look both ways...
Take your vitamins. --Yeah
--A lot going on. Liesel Tommy is directing it. She was a Tony nominee for
Eclipsed. We already knew that, and we already knew that Oscar winner and
Broadway alum Jennifer Hudson will play Aretha Franklin. I don't need to tell
anything about Aretha Franklin coz you know. But if you don't know, you've
got until August 14 2020 to read up. --And they haven't announced the rest
of the cast yet? --No.
--We have a release and everything but it's kind of still
--Far away --Yeah, I guess
--They're still in pre-production. Yeah. There you go.
--And we are
freaking out because Broadway.com's 2019 spring preview has officially launched.
--Woo! --Guys, we've been busting our butts
for a while now, and the spring preview has gone live
today, or at least the beginning of it --The launch.
--The launch, so you can watch the full
video. Laura Benanti came and hosted again this year. You can also
watch the Be More Chill feature with Joe Iconis is up on the site.
--He was very charming. --Tell me I mean you've been you've been in the
trenches. --There's more. Listen, we've
got 14 shows. That's it basically every show from the spring, participated
in the spring preview. There are gorgeous photos from our photographers, gorgeous
videos and interviews. Check it out. Keep coming back because your favorites are
coming up. --Every day between now and March 21st
a new feature. --That's right.
--It's insane --Surprise
--Way to go, team. --That's right. Way to go
--We did it! --And we have a lot because the first show,
Be More Chill is opening on Sundays. --This Sunday
--Happy open happy pre-opening to Be More Chill. --RIght
--Break a leg ladies and
gentlemen.
--And at the other end of that, All My Sons press event happened
today.
--This morning --Yes, Miss Moynihan was on hand.
--It was a great time. What can you say? You can't go wrong hanging
out with that cast in the morning. --Tracy Letts, Annette Bening,
I saw Annette Bening last
night in Captain Marvel. And now she's here on Broadway.
--I thought you were going to be like I hung out --I hung out with Annette Bening.
Had a drink at
Glasshouse with her. No, and also on the site right now, you can check out a new Fresh Face
with Gbenga Akinnagbe from To Kill a Mockingbird on Broadway. Absolutely
incredible guy, so good in the show, so fascinating
--Great story --To learn about his life.
So, check that out. And that's it for me.
--Ryan --Because this is Noah's seat, and I'm just I'm
just taking it up --Just warming it up.
Ryan, have a good weekend. --Thank you so much. Happy
International Women's Day.
--Thank you --Beth and Caitlin and everyone.
--Happy feminist always frozen. --Thank you.
--Caitlin, tell us
about our guest, will you? --Yes. Gladly.
As we said before, we have Noah J.
Ricketts in the studio with us today because he's currently starring as
Kristoff in Frozen. He's been in the show for a little bit
as an ensemble member in the original Broadway cast, and he made his Broadway
debut in Beautiful, which he also took on the road. His other stage credits include
Hello Dolly, Tarzan Dreamgirls, not with J Hud, but it's like there's a
tie-in there. It all works out. Make sure to follow him on Instagram at Noah J
rkts. I think it's short for Ricketts, but it just the letters, not the name. It's
okay. Leave all of your questions in the comments below and please welcome Noah
and Beth.
--Thank You Caitlin. How are you feeling
Caitlin? You okay? -- I'm feeling great.
--A great introduction --She's a little giddy that you're here.
--I really like it. --Welcome.
--Hi. Thank you, Beth. -- Good to see you.
--Good to see you as well.
--How is it going over it Frozen? --Oh man, it's going very well.
It's going very well. It's been a good two and a half weeks now.
--Yeah. Are you feeling it now?
--I'm feeling it now.
I'm settling in. You know, it's been quite a jump from the ensemble to taking over
the role of Christoph but it's been a good journey. It's been a great journey.
--How's your reindeer?
--My reindeer. -- I'm just asking the hard-hitting, journalistic
questions everyone wants to know.
--Well, both of my reindeer are doing very well.
--Of course. --You know they do two
shows, they switch off right. So four and four --It's a very demanding role.
--It is --Physically. I'm not
joking. --Insane. And I'm not quite
sure how they really do it, but they do
it. --So, did you get to switch dressing
rooms? I wanna hear the real dirt --The
real dirt is I actually shared dressing room with Lady Olaf.
So, --So stay in one room.
--Is that what we call her? Lady Olaf?
--Lady Olaf, that's what I call her. --How is that going? So, of course
Olaf was played by a guy and now it's played by Ryann Redmond. It was played by Greg
Hildreth. --Yes, women!
--And now Ryann has taken over the role.
--Yes --Cuz you've been in the show
for a while so you know sort of what
Greg brought to the role. How is it with Ryann? -- It's been awesome. It's a it's a
really different energy you know? And it's awesome to hear these numbers in
new keys, which is super super duper exciting.
--It's great that they did that. --It is really
great. I think it's a step forward and it's a step in the right direction for
our show, about empowering women.
--Yeah. I really feel like for an International
Women's Day we hit the jackpot here with Noah
--I think so --Let me hear a little bit about your origin story.
Tell me where you grew up how you got started.
--Okay, so you might not believe me.
Nobody ever does, but I'm from Louisville Kentucky.
-- I can tell by your voice. --Oh you
can!
--No, not at all --Oh, okay. There you go. That's why.
--These actors are trained! --Right right so
I went to theater school and got that taken out. But um I'm from Louisville
Kentucky and I got into theater by breaking my wrist when I was I think
eight years old, eight years old yeah.
--I'm confused. --Okay so,
it's a short story and I'll keep it really short for you. But basically my
best friend Ashley, she brought over a new toy one day, which was called a
skateboard. --Oh boy how old were you??
--I was eight.
And I got on that thing and I went down pretty hard as soon as I got on. It was
my first and last day --And that was the end of it
--I was very brave, but my wrist wasn't
too brave. I broke it and I couldn't go to sports camp, so my mom was like you
know what? We're gonna send you the theater camp instead. They'll take you.
So was like Okay... --We'll take you!
--So I went and ever since then I've
never looked back. We did Schoolhouse Rock Live Junior. I played Joe. I sang
Conjunction Junction. --Well that's a classic
--And the rest is history. --Now were you a singer? Did they
know you had a little talent before that? Or was it just like, Camp will take
my damage child?
--I really hadn't I hadn't sung before. I hadn't done really much in
the arts. I was kind of sporty. I liked soccer a lot. So, they kind of pulled out
the singing, they pulled it out of me at the camp. Yeah. And one of
my favorite teachers ever Jan Tedesco, I hope you're watching, she spotted me
and the sea of kids and was like, I think you can sing. Let's figure this out. And
yeah. --So tell me some of your
illustrious roles that you did in school.
--Oh man. In school. You know, you know I love
when you play roles in school because
it's like type goes out the window --Totally miscast.
--Right --You know you're 16 or
whatever.
--Right. So, well one of my favorites is playing Javert in Les Mis
--Very appropriate. How old were you? 12? --I was 18? You
know. You know, so that was one of my favorites.
--You brought a lot of gravitas to the role.
--Right, and I'm waiting for the day I get
to do it again, It might be in 30 years but
one of these days I'll do it again. That's definitely one of my favorites.
Also, I did Barone in Love's Labour's
Lost, which was actually super duper fun.
--What range! --One of my first, yeah. Right?
It's my first introduction into Shakespeare and that was really cool.
--Okay, what do you love about Frozen? There's so much to love, but I want to
hear about two things. I want to hear about— this cast seems tight. They seem like
they really support each other. I want to hear about that
and I want to hear about the stage-door experience.
--Oh man.
Okay great. So, this cast is really tight and coming from the ensemble and
jumping up to this role has been really awesome because I truly do feel like
they are my family. And one of the numbers in act two that I love the best
is Fixer-Upper because I do this huge chant.
Yeah, I do this huge chant I say boy oh boy oh boy, which means
which means come my people.
--You've had to learn another language.
--I I did have to learn a
--little bit
--Right. And so when I say that and all these ensemble members rush
down to the front of the stage, it's like truly is like I'm calling my family. And
it's really special. Yeah, we're really tight because we've been through
a lot with the show. We started here in New York. We took out of town. We worked
really hard to make that production, and we took some time off. We came back. we
redid a lot of stuff --This is a huge the movie was a
huge hit, so everybody knows some of
these songs. There are a lot of new songs in the Broadway version
--Yeah 12 new songs, which is pretty
exciting but it came with a lot of pressure. So, we only had each other to
make this musical a hit, and we did it thank God. But that's why we're so close
and like such a tight-knit family.
--Okay, so now I want to hear about the stage
door. --Okay
--Because Frozen fans are serious --They are not joking
--Right --They are not joking and it's pretty
awesome. And I think my
favorite thing about the stage tour is seeing the repeated faces. I see people
two three four... --What's their name, like Rent heads or
you know Rent fans are Rent heads, Newsies are
Fansies.. -- I would call them Frozen fractals
--Oh --You like that?
--Good . --The frozen fractals come to the stage
door over and over again. --Yeah they do.
--Do they call themselves that? -- I don't know, but maybe they will now.
--Let us know if you're out there. We're going to call you fractals
for now.
--Right. So, yeah it's pretty great because we see people that come that
come to the show. A lot of people are like oh I loved you in the ensemble and
I love what you're doing with this new role as well. I'm like oh you've seen it
multiple times. That's great. --Oh you know me?
--That's right. --Amazing.
--Yeah. They send baked goods. They they send pictures of themselves.
They send pictures of us at the stage
door with them.
--Wow. --Yeah so we've got a really great fan base
Jelani Aladdin
originated this role on Broadway. Did he give you any advice?
--Any advice... --I knoe you saw
him do it a lot .
--Yeah I did see him do it a lot. Any advice? Maybe just to watch
out for the reindeer. You know, they're doing a lot. --Everyone feels that way
about the reindeer in general. --Yeah.
--Watch out for them.
--Watch out. They are so good at their jobs, I have to watch
out for them because they you know they really are animals. They're animalistic
in doing that puppet, and it's pretty special. So, you know I think the one of
the greatest things he's ever said to me was just, Watch out for that reindeer.
--How many times have you seen the movie ?
--Once.
--What?
--One time!
--But you've heard those songs millions of times.
--Yes! Oh yeah.
I was very familiar with the songs. Yeah you can't escape those, but
when I got the appointment, which was years ago now, I was like, Oh, I should
probably watch this movie and see how it goes. And that was the --You weren't there opening
night? Opening day?
--I wasn't. -- I was. I was.
--No. I have trouble sitting down and
watching TV and movies. Like, being still. So, it's hard for me to watch things
sometimes, but after I got the appointment I was like I'm gonna watch
this movie. And I remember being so taken aback by Hans and how he ended up being
the bad guy. I remember like feeling that
--Spoilers!
--Oh no! --Tag your spoilers
--Two billion of you that I've seen the movie, we're sorry
For the people who haven't
--Maybe it ends different on Broadway. You don't know.
--We don't know --You never know.
So, I've seen it a total of one time and I'm really excited to see Frozen 2. That's
what I'm really excited about.
--I know you have questions. I always have questions. -- Yes, so
Karl wants to know that what was it like to kind of you've already been a part of
the show but kind of step in his new character while some people are still
staying. It's not like a whole first new cast, like how is it feeling stepping
into it kind of mid --Mid stream
yeah it's yeah... It's actually been great. I was a little
nervous about it at first how was it gonna work out. And the creative team has
been really awesome about letting me do my thing and tailoring the show to fit
my needs and my ability. So, we added a little dance break a special Kristoff
dance break that's new into the show. We did some new vocal stuff. We played
with some new blocking and it's been great to kind of make it my own, and I
couldn't have done that without the creative team for sure.
--I love that they're letting you do
that. I love that they're letting Ryan do that.
--Yeah. --It just feels like they're it's not
a machine.
--Yeah. --Frozen, it's tailoring.
--It's completely new and I think people who see it again for the second time are
gonna be like whoa. --Or the third or the fourth.
--So, this is kind of similar kind of answered it but maybe
can expand on a little bit more but Lea just wants to know that how is
your performance as Kristoff changed from when you were do it as an
understudy occasionally to now doing it... --Well there's that dance break but what
else?
--There's that dance break --Other than the dance break
I think like a lot of the time when you go on as
an understudy it's a lot of like fight-or-flight mode you get to like
meet just make it happen and doing the role over and over and
over again been able to expand emotionally. I've
been able to expand on blocking, try new choices see what laughs work, see what
don't work, and that's been I guess the most exciting part for me.
--What's the notice like when you're an understudy? How often like how do you
find out?
--Oh man --Lots of stuff it's live
It's real. So, I'm sure there
are a lot of things that happen, but what's in your experience what's been
the shortest notice?
--Well, I'll tell you the shortest and scariest was um one
of our out of towns. So, we opened out of town in Denver, and it was opening night.
I was at the mall. I needed white shoes for my tux, and I was trying on shoes,
I'll never forget it. And I got a call from stage management that said you need
to get to the theater right now. You might be going on tonight as in our
first out of town. And anyone that's opened a Broadway show knows that when you do an
out-of-town, it's crazy. You know you barely know what you're doing
as it is, so it was hard it was scary to be to think that I was gonna be on for
the lead that night. So, I'd say that was our shortest notice. --And did you do it ?
--I ended up not going on that day. I went on the next night and so I spent my first
night, opening, freaking out. --And you didn't get the shoes? You got the shoes?
--I didn't get the shoes! I didn't. I
know right? I found some brown loafers. We made it work.
--Make it work. --Yeah yeah.
I would say that was the shortest and scariest. But you never know. You get
month ahead of time, five minutes. You never know. Sometimes mid-show.
--That's amazing. --Yeah. So, Jenna wants to know if you have
any other like artistic outlets that you like to do or any other things like to
really blow off steam or get ready in between shows or
--We want to know about you. --Oh yeah, we
were just talking about this right before I came into the studio, but I
played the piano since I was in the fourth grade.
Yeah, and that's Ike that is my definite like blowing off steam. I can play for
hours and hours on end just going going going. I love musical theater hits.
--Oh what do you like to play?
--I like a little Cats. I like some Les Mis. I mean, I
like all the old school hits and I just go ham, you know? Sometimes I sing,
sometimes I don't, just depends on the day. -- I love that. Speaking of old school
hits, you were in Beautiful. --I was.
--Beautiful isn't an old school hit, but
Carole King, follow me. So, tell me about some of your memories of being in that
show. --Oh my god. It was awesome.
One of my favorite memories was... I think I
was in I was in Omaha, and I was doing the show, and I finished my number and I
saw this woman in the wings with with black hair
and a hood on, and and and sunglasses, and I was like what is that? Who let this
crazy person in?
--Who let Elphaba in? --I go off and do my quick change and
as I'm doing it, I see the glasses come off and I see the hair come off, and it's
Carole King herself, waiting in the wings,
just didn't want to be noticed but
wanted to watch the show. And that's like one of my favorite memories of all time.
--Thank God --She signed one of her albums
for me, and I still have it. Its in my
dressing room today.
--Did you get to play the piano with her?
--Oh, I wish! I wish. One day,
Carole let me know. --If you say it on the show it will happen.
--Yeah, Carole please please please.
--All right we have time for one more question.
--Okay so last question is from
Tammy, and she wants to know what is it like just to be part of such a huge like
franchise that is Frozen. What's it like to do that on Broadway every night?
--It's pretty awesome. I love that the show comes with its own cult following.
I think it's pretty --The fan base is there
--special. Yeah, and so I feel like my job is to
just show up and serve the story the best I can. And it's great just to be a
part of that in any perspective. --Okay this is a Disney show. So,
favorite Disney Prince and Princess.
--Mmm, I think they come in the same the same
movie. My favorite movie is The Little Mermaid. --Okay
--So, Ariel and and Eric
right princess yeah Prince Eric. That that those are my two.
--Oh! --Yeah, but my new my
favorite new new one, Moana. She's pretty awesome. She's pretty awesome.
--She doesn't
need a man. --Yeah, yeah.
--International Women's Day just
saying. --Exactly, full circle.
--Thank you so much. --Thank you.
--You guys, I know you've seen Frozen, and I
know you're frozen fractals. But head over to the St. James Theatre and check it out again
because there's a brand new Kristoff and more. Caitlin will you take us on out for
the weekend? --Yes, for the weekend! Thank
you guys so much for tuning in today. We
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subscribe button. Be sure to tune in next week when we
talk to will Swenson, Eric Lochtefeld and a whole lot more, and have a very
happy International Women's Day.